Added link, logo, and thumbs for the demo site. I'm not really happy with the thumbnails, but it works for now -- again, I'm thinking of significantly reworking the entire layout; I can worry about it then.

Rebuilt thadde.us using Foundation; got it to where it's good enough to go live for now.

Things I want to change:

Pretty up the contact form a bit (including making the placeholder text more legible)

Should also style the reCAPTCHA div to show a placeholder before it loads

Re-add animations-- I'm thinking slide-down effect for the subnavs and form errors and probably for clicking on an anchor -- maybe add a scroll-to-top button while I'm at itI've got a slide-down effect working when you click "Websites" or "Audiobooks" on the homepage, but not for when you load a new page from the navbar. Probably need to implement that, and set an offset so that the topbar doesn't cover up the top of the section.

Maybe replace header text on Websites page with logos

Add Intel site to Websites page (maybe replace MD or SwimIt, or maybe keep all of them)

Do something with the Intel screenshot, probably a click-to-zoom

Under the hood I should probably sync the submenus to the data I use to populate the Websites and Audiobooks pages; I noticed the nav didn't match up when I was working on it

Pretty up the "Websites" and "Audiobooks" icons in the hero on the homepage; need more colors. I'm thinking maybe layer two icons for Audiobooks, too, like the book and a Volume icon, since eventually I want to add an ebooks icon there too.

Fix some weird shit that goes on at medium resolution, including the navbar breaking up the flow of the page title on some pages at some window sizes; there's an issue with the width of the homepage where it's got a horizontal scrollbar at small and medium width (no other pages)

There's also some alignment stuff going on at mobile size; need to do more testing there. (thadde.us and menu overlap; "Projects -- Thad [linebreak] Boyd". Should probably shrink size of header fonts.)

Audiobooks page loads balls-ass slowly in Firefox due to the multiple YouTube videos; loads fine in Chrome. Could maybe add something to not autoload the videos in Firefox, though this is really more Mozilla's problem than mine. (Might be worth checking out on different versions of Firefox with different sets of plugins; could be something specific to my setup that's bogging it down.)

I think that's the list for now; open to suggestions and bug reports, though.

(EDIT to cross off some of the stuff that's done and add some new stuff)

Site runs well. Here is some rambling from a quick look at the frontpage: "Thad Boyd's Portfolio" reads like placeholder text: "I selected a Microsoft Word Template and it auto-filled my name and the template name in the Title field", and the short introduction reads unprofessionally to me. I'm having a hard time thinking of what to replace it with since website design and audiobook narration don't really share anything, but maybe just "Portfolio — Thad Boyd"? I think you can just cut "Hi, I'm Thad. I make things. Here are some of them." since that's more specifically described under the website and audiobook sections.

I don't like the hero banner functionality. The anchor links are unnecessary for such a short frontpage; I expected them to just take me directly to those separate pages. This is doubly problematic since the Website and Audiobook h2s aren't links and your main menu doesn't scroll down with you. Really, that whole section feels superfluous with your current amount of content. I'm not the biggest fan of this solution either but if you wanted to retain those links maybe shrink them and use them as just icons for now? It gives the feeling of the current row of social sharing icons which will make it visually familiar to corporate people looking, but that could be a plus and a minus.

Edit: Also, you might want to update your Linkedin profile or remove the link. Same basic thing with your Github link, there's not really any activity which might look offputting to an employer.

Rico wrote:Site runs well. Here is some rambling from a quick look at the frontpage: "Thad Boyd's Portfolio" reads like placeholder text: "I selected a Microsoft Word Template and it auto-filled my name and the template name in the Title field",

Gah, yeah, now that you mention it. It was "Thad Boyd's Project Page" before but that's not really any better. "Portfolio -- Thad Boyd" is probably better but it doesn't read quite right either.

Rico wrote:and the short introduction reads unprofessionally to me.

Definitely going for informal there, but yeah it feels a lot like a placeholder too.

Rico wrote:I don't like the hero banner functionality. The anchor links are unnecessary for such a short frontpage; I expected them to just take me directly to those separate pages.

Looks better in the mobile version of the site (as does the scroll function I added), but yeah what are the odds that someone looking to hire will load the mobile version first?

I think the solution here is to add more content. If I add two more websites I can add another row to the Websites section, and I do plan on adding a third section for ebooks.

Rico wrote:This is doubly problematic since the Website and Audiobook h2s aren't links

That's not a bad idea and it's an easy fix.

Rico wrote:and your main menu doesn't scroll down with you.

Yeah, that might be a good idea too; I don't care much for fixed topbars but the site's not for me.

Rico wrote:Edit: Also, you might want to update your Linkedin profile or remove the link. Same basic thing with your Github link, there's not really any activity which might look offputting to an employer.

Github's just the site code for now (the main site and the Angular demo), which is probably good enough as far as having to show something to people who want to look at my website code.

Pretty much all that ever goes on with the LinkedIn site is that recruiters go there and ask me to add them. If I don't have a link to it on the portfolio site, it's just going to put "Do you have a LinkedIn account?" back on the list of questions every recruiter asks me.

I'll probably put more samples up there as I get to them on the portfolio site.

Anyway, appreciate the feedback; should be able to get on some of it right away.

I'd personally prefer the links over the fixed topbar and it's the easier solution, but showing you can do a fixed topbar might be a good idea if your potential clients include ecommerce where it's a little more useful and standard than informational sites.

For Github, I figured that was the reason. Maybe change the link to https://github.com/thadboyd/thadde.us ? The huge 0 Followers 0 Following 1 public contribution in a year... just looks like you're linking to nothing.

Similarly with LinkedIn (and maybe it would display differently were I logged in?)it appears to only be showing a job I'm pretty sure you don't have—International Surveillance Solutions, Inc.—and doesn't appear to list any of the things that actually appear in your website development portfolio.

International Surveillance Solutions is, nominally, my current job (though I should change the name, link, and thumb to Global Jet Partners, which is another, much more recent and better-looking site for the same guy), as it's an open-ended freelance gig.

(As a matter of fact Global Jet Partners is my most recent paying gig. Or at least it will be once I get my check in the mail.)

I'll keep the Github link idea in mind, though I like having both sites browsable from the start; it's a lot easier to tell someone how to get to my sample Angular code that way, and I've got a couple potential Angular opportunities coming my way.

Added two more websites, Intel and Integrated Aviation Group, to a sandbox site at http://thadde.us/dev/thadde.us/; I don't think they're quite ready to move to the main site.

I think I'll set the Intel screenshot to work as a single-image gallery; click on the thumb to get a bigger image. (The sites I built at Intel were all internal and I can't link to them.)

Integrated Aviation Group is largely there to bring the number to six; it looks like a placeholder and it kind of is. The site is really sparse, though that's down to the client's priorities; his focus was on building an eye-catching homepage and worrying about the rest of the site later. (And no, it doesn't have a logo yet; logo design's not really my thing.) I think that, as the fifth site of six, it's not so bad, though, and that homepage does look good (and will look better once I slap the sliding contact form up on it, but that's another thing I'm waiting for customer approval on).

I'm not crazy about the descriptions I came up with for them, either; the Integrated Aviation one is almost identical to the Global Jet Partners one, and the Intel one feels sparse. Then again, I think most people looking at the page will just skim it, and the thumbs are probably more important than the copy.

Developing. Thinking I'll probably finish up making the tweaks I've already listed and then let it cool for a little while, work on my blog and my ebook(s). I figure I'll take another pass at Old Tom and the Old Tome, see what I can do by way of converting it to epub, come up with a cover, put it up on Amazon, Smashwords, etc., and then I can add an "ebooks" section to my portfolio.

After that I think my next book project will be an expanded (but still probably not standard book-length) version of my Tempin' Ain't Easy post; it's become clear that my best storytelling strength lies in personal anecdotes and I've seen enough nonsense over the last seven years to get some good grist.

(I also started another one, The Ballad of Amaroq Barnes, about a colorful character I knew in the early days of the not-quite-the-Internet, but it's proven really choppy going. A big part of the conceit I wanted to go with was that I would write the whole thing as I remember it now, without going through any old board posts or E-Mails to jog my memory, but the result is really choppy, uneven, and meandering. I'm still thinking I'll finish it that way and then, after the first draft, I do go back and read a bunch of old shit to try and tie it all together. Of course, I'm still traumatized from the last time I sifted through shit I wrote when I was 14, so I can't say as I'm looking forward to that. Still, Tempin' Ain't Easy sounds like a much easier project right now and maybe I'll get inspired along the way.)